Missed appointments and late cancellations - what patients don't know can hurt others
Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center averages over 4,600 missed appointments per month or late appointments that were not cancelled or rescheduled.
These "no show" appointments result in wasted financial and staff resources as well as a missed opportunity to provide care to other patients.
In fiscal year 2013, DDEAMC had 55,524 patients that did not show up for booked appointments or cancelled less than 24-hours before their scheduled appointment, resulting in those appointments not being rebooked.
The unused appointments inhibited many patients from getting to see their physician in a timely manner and cost DDEAMC over $4.7 million dollars in funding.
Our patients are our partners in heath and having available patient appointments at DDEAMC is important to us. The only way to ensure access to services is for our patients to know that missing or not cancelling an appointment effects everyone.
No shows also have a tremendous effect on the clinic activities with can prevent patients from getting appointments.
If you are unable to keep a scheduled appointment call and reschedule or cancel and by doing this you will help your medical center open thousands of appointments for other people.
The steps to canceling an appointment are simple and convenient. The Central Appointments System may be accessed 24 hours a day and seven days a week at 706-787-7300. After opening instruction, the options are:
Press 1 to make an appointment
Press 2 to cancel an existing appointment
Press 3 to leave a message for your provider or request renewal of a prescription
Press 4 for a provider referral to a civilian provider (outside the network area)
Press 5 for a problem that needs to be addressed today
Press 6 for Tricare assistance
Press 0 for Operator assistance
It is critical that patients cancel an appointment as soon as possible to ensure that DDEAMC can use...